Tag: Turks and Caicos

Cruiser Dos and Don’ts

Brian and I made our first crossing a year ago and have made mistakes, many mistakes. For those interested in exploring a life on board a boat, this post is for you. I don’t claim to be any sort of expert here, in fact, I started out as a complete novice. Maybe you can avoid our mistakes through my cruiser dos and don’ts to hopefully help you slide into this lifestyle with ease!

Boat Ownership Dos and Don’ts

Do Like To Fix Things

If Brian wasn’t so handy, and didn’t enjoy fixing things and working with his hands, we wouldn’t be here. If you already like to fix things, you are golden, but if you don’t, or don’t know how, take a class in mechanics or something before you buy the boat.

The sea finds out everything you did wrong.

Boats are more likely to break when and where no one else is around, so you will have to fix it or at least stop it from getting worse. I am not handy at all and even I am getting better at that stuff. In my opinion, people who can’t or don’t want to fix things won’t be happy in this life.

Do Lock Up Your Valuables

If it’s something you need, lock it up. Dinghies get stolen all the time, and we even had our gas tank stolen out of our dinghy in Martinique. It sucks, but people need money (or gas, when there was a strike in the French islands) and if you make it easy for them to steal, they just might.

Locked Dinghy Cruisers Dos and Don'ts
Lock Up!
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Our First 24 Hour Crossing

We waited a long time for this. Without a working autopilot, we struggle to do long trips on board Sava. The crossing from Turks and Caicos to any island south is longer than a day. Which is why we hired Jeff to fly down from Florida to accompany us to our next destination. Our luck still being bad, as soon as we tried to leave, the engine conked. By the time we had a new part shipped from Florida, cleared through customs and replaced the engine, it was almost one week from when we originally tried to do the crossing.

Waiting for a crossing weather window

In that week, the winds were mostly from the north and not too strong. All those days we were sitting in Provo waiting for the part, the weather was perfect for the trip. And then the part came. And we looked at the weather again. If we didn’t leave on Wednesday, we were going to be stuck for another week. We didn’t want to do that, and we weren’t going to pay Jeff for another week of waiting either. Rather than the 250 or so knots to Puerto Rico, we decided to make a smaller jump of 145 nm to Luperón, Dominican Republic. On Wednesday April 3rd, at around 6pm, we made our exit from the lovely Turks and Caicos.

weather and wind

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Stuck Outside of Provo

Proof again not to make plans on a sailboat came this week in Provo, Turks and Caicos. We brought Captain Jeff on board on Wednesday and were ready to go for our passage to Puerto Rico. Provisions were in, boat was clean, we were ready. It wasn’t to be: the engine conked out on our way to the fuel dock and we are stuck outside of Provo, Turks and Caicos.

Engine Problems

We hadn’t even left the island. An hour in, heading to a marina to fill up the water and the fuel for the journey, I smelled burning. I mentioned it and Jeff saw smoke. Brian turned off the engine and we went down below to check out the damage. Based on our history, we tried adding coolant. Then turned the engine on and looked. It looked like we needed a water pump.

After sourcing a pump from the U.S., we think it will be here on Tuesday. Maybe we will get out on Wednesday. But I know better than to make any plans!

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